Big Brother Routine
by Kalysia
Summary: Playing the big brother routine around Olivia was always fun, but it was, somehow, even funnier when John was involved.


Disclaimers: None of the characters of mine. I just like to mess around with them, mess around in their heads.  
  
Author's Note: You might notice the opening as a part from the episode "Bad Blood", from Season One. I loved the line, hell, the whole scene was great, and I had other ideas about how it could have went.

* * *

"Hey, man. You hittin' on my partner?" Elliot joked, grabbing John by the arm. Playing the big brother routine around Olivia was always fun, but it was, somehow, even funnier when John was involved. It made Elliot feel more like a big brother than it did when he was ready to backhand a perp for giving Olivia lip.  
  
John, who had been leaning over Olivia, sharing some information with her, threw his hands up in surrender. "Hey, man," he said, playing innocent. "You got the wrong guy."  
  
Elliot just laughed, and thought about the expression that now sat on Munch's face. He had seen it before; a combination of guilt, knowing he had been caught, which Elliot found funny since he hadn't done anything, embarrassment, for being a suspect in the first place, and something else that Elliot just couldn't put his finger on at the moment.  
  
"Thanks, Elliot," Olivia laughed. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't saved me," she joked, sarcastically. She looked over at Munch, who had apparently ignored her comment, and had since buried his face back into his work. It wouldn't have bothered her so much if he had just not heard her, but he had seemed to have made a point of completely shutting her out. There was one thing that she found suspicious about it all; they hadn't been handed a new case in a few days, so what in the hell was he working on? "Whatcha' got, there, cowboy?" she asked, referring to the file that he was hunched over, the nosey detective in her coming out to play. Even if it was more the nosey part, as opposed to the detective part, that was coming out, she could care less. Her only interest was finding out what Munch was up to.  
  
"Uh," he began, his tone recognizable to Olivia right off the bat. She had seen it enough in the interrogation room, suspects who weren't always being honest, who had something to hide. "Just... Nothing. Just some stuff I've been meaning to take care of for a little while, now."  
  
Olivia nodded, hiding the fact that she knew otherwise. "Sure," she responded, lifting a cup of cooling coffee to her lips.  
  
"Sure what?" Munch shot back, defensively.  
  
Olivia almost choked on her coffee, not expecting him to return fire. "Nothing!" she laughed, innocently. "Just saying - ."  
  
"Yeah. Right."  
  
"Woah," Elliot chimed in, tired of sitting in silence as his friends exchanged words. It was fine with him if it was just some friendly fire, but this was becoming an all-out enemy assault. "John, you okay?"  
  
"Fine!" John shouted back, as he rose from his chair, making sure to push it into his desk as hard as he could once he was out of it. He stormed off, making his way toward the break room.  
  
Elliot's jaw dropped so fast that he thought he could hear it snap, realizing for the first time just what it was in John's voice that stood out. Irritation. Sheer, unmatched irritation. But, why? What had happened to John in the last twelve seconds to make him so agitated?  
  
"Elliot?" he heard Olivia's voice come from behind him. He turned around, and saw on her face the same confused, bewildered expression that he was sure he wore. "What in the hell was that all about?"  
  
All Elliot could do was shrug. "I have no idea." He thought for a few moments more about it, about what in the world had been said to piss John off so badly. He had seen John pissed off before, but not like this. Elliot watched as his friend disappeared through the doorway, and decided that he had better keep an eye on him for the rest of the day, just watch is back a little more than usual. Something was eating at him, and, even if he wasn't going to share it, Elliot was going to make sure that he didn't express it in other ways.  
  
"Benson. Stabler. In my office."  
  
Elliot was snapped back to reality by the sound of Cragen's voice. He and Olivia rose from their seats, and walked toward Cragen's office. He would have to put John out of his thoughts for a while, if only long enough to get his ass chewed for God knows what this time. After that, it was back to work, and back to worrying about John Munch.


End file.
